Nick Adams: His Hollywood Life and Death

Nick Adams was far more a dreamer than "The Rebel" he would portray in his heyday. At 18 he hitchhiked to Hollywood to become a movie star. A quintessential self-promoter, he defied all odds in making his dream come true, but he could never seem to get out of his own way. His death, exploited by writers as one of Hollywood's dark mysteries, came by his own hand.

Nick Adams, 36, who won fame as "The Rebel" on television, was found dead in his Coldwater Canyon home last night under circumstances that puzzled police.

His body, fully clothed, was found in a sitting position beside his bed by his attorney, Ervin "Tip" Roeder. There was no indication as to the cause of death. No weapons or sleeping pills were found. Adams's lawyer told Det. Verne Jones he arrived at the $54,000 Cape Cod style home bordering Beverly Hills about 8 p.m. When no one answered the doorbell, Roeder crawled through a window and discovered the body.

Nick Adams's death was the final, strangest chapter in a life and career that took many unusual turns.

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With the purpose of writing about true crime in an authoritative, fact-based manner, veteran journalists J. J. Maloney and J. Patrick O’Connor launched Crime Magazine in November of 1998.

Their goal was to cover all aspects of true crime: from organized crime to serial killers, from capital punishment to prisons, from historical crimes to celebrity crime, from assassinations to government corruption, from justice issues to innocent cases, from crime films to books about crime. Read More